In March we reported that Canesta prepared to release "projected" or virtual keyboards, tracking the finger movement near an image, created by a light source. Yesterday the company announced the complete development and volume production readiness. Canesta Keyboard features a microcontroller and two optical parts: the first, Canesta Keyboard Pattern Projector (PP-CK100) projects keyboard image to a random flat surface.

Canesta Keyboard is designed for mobile devices: PDAs, mobile phones and, perhaps, tablet PCs. The company claims that a user, typing 65-80 words per minute with 2.5-3% mistakes on a usual keyboard, will be able to type 45-50 words per minute with 5% mistakes on a virtual keyboard. The company explains this by smaller size of virtual buttons, but currently they work on enlarging it up to 90 mm.

Zayo Razor will also feature button backlight. There will be two versions: A600EXE for $550 and more advanced A600PPC, supplied with CF adapter, CF-PCMCIA adapter and a cradle with a second battery for 20-hour operation. Zayo Razor dimensions are 124.5x73.6x12.3 mm, weight  155 g.

Chips are produced by Sun´s traditional partner Texas Instruments. Due to the new process technology, the energy consumption of new 1.2 GHz UltraSPARC III Cu is reduced from 75 W to 53 W at 14% clock rate growth comparing to 0.15-micron 1.05 GHz predecessor.

Texas Instruments launched Sun UltraSPARC III Cu 1200 production in July. Volume shipments of ready systems are expected within 120 days. Currently TI is developing a prototype of new UltraSPARC IV, combining two UltraSparc cores on a single crystal. Besides, the company prepares for 90-nm process technology testing early in 2003, that will be supposedly used for making UltraSparc V.

Today Intel has officially announced 2GHz Celeron made using 0.13-micron process technology and packaged into 478-pin casing. FSB is 400 MHz.

At that the company missed 1.9 GHz version, though have had plans for its production. However, this did only good, as the chip costs $103 (1,000-unit and larger consignments) and will supposedly replace 1.8 GHz version soon. The new Celeron has also appeared for sale before the official press release not only in Tokyo, but also in Canada and Russia.

As 0.13-micron technology enables to reduce the cost price by 45% comparing to 0.18-micron technology, Intel gets better pricing and production profitability. Naturally, the main thing is not to let new Socket 478 Celerons take over Pentium 4 market share. Though, according to Taiwanese mass media, referring to PC makers, old Socket 370 Celeron stocks are still significant, so sales of new Socket 478 Celerons will have their space.

A simple idea of mounting a digital camera onto a support to get a variable coverage scanner has at last been commercially realized by Hitachi, that plans to present its interesting Blinkscan BS20U solution in mid-November.

Blinkscan BS20U, resembling an enlarger, features USB 2.0, can be demounted for transporting and is suitable for any scanning purposes due to its high scan speed (12 million pixels in 24-bit mode for 0.8 sec). Another advantage is the possibility of scanning volume materials, including 3D. First, the company plans to ship á4 device, A3 version to follow in December.